This competition is seeking companies that "have the ability to revolutionize their industry by working with our ecological resources while creating economic opportunities." Applicants must be legally registered for-profit companies (partnership, LLC, S-corp or C-corp) with operations in New York and revenue not exceeding $10 million.

Cash prizes will be awarded in the amounts of $8,000 for first-place and $1,000 for second place. Service packages awarded to top teams include office space rental and website hosting. The submission deadline for this competition is March 22, 2009. Additional competition details are available via the links below:

New Resource Bank, a commercial bank in San Francisco, announced on September 17 that it completed a second equity offering, totaling $13.9 million. The completed stock offering expands the bank’s equity capital base by more than 75%.

New Resource Bank is a FDIC insured institution that opened in September 2006 and offers banking services to individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations. The bank provides financing for efficient and sustainable resources in its community, including offering a solar lending program as well as lending to entrepreneurial community businesses and green businesses. New Resource Bank had $185 million in assets at the end of June 2008.

New investors in the announced equity offering include institutions such as the Climate Solutions Fund of Generation Investment Management, which was co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore and David Blood, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Other new investors include community leaders such as Bill Unger, Partner Emeritus of the Mayfield Fund and Joshua Mailman, a co-founder of Business for Social Responsibility and the Social Venture Network. They join a group of existing shareholders comprising business leaders, social entrepreneurs and institutions which also re-invested, including Bob Epstein, co-founder of Environmental Entrepreneurs, Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus and co-founder of the Level Playing Field Institute and Triodos Bank, a leading ethical and sustainable bank in Europe. When New Resource Bank opened in 2006, 240 shareholders had provided $24.75 million in equity capital.

"We are pleased with the support from new and existing investors. The additional capital will enable us to reach a next tier of growth," said Bank initial founder and vice chairman Peter Liu.

"Our ability to add capital and new investors is a direct result of our differentiated focus on green businesses and projects; and on consumers who care more about the impact of their money," said Bank president and CEO Clay Jones. "This market focus is the key reason why we are able to become one of the fastest growing new banks."

The initial project will be at the Mount Herman landfill in Caldwell County, North Carolina. GHGS will design, build and operate a facility that will capture more than 120,000 tons of methane gas from the landfill over ten years. The captured methane gas will be destroyed by flare or converted to a fuel source to power a new agricultural research greenhouse that will be built for the Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute as part of the project.

The GHG credits will be generated from the methane gas captured by GHGS, and the company will work with an independent third party to certify the scientific integrity of the avoided emissions. Google will add these offsets to its carbon portfolio to advance its goal of company-wide carbon neutrality. The project will use the GHGS Standard of Practice to govern the creation, management and retirement of the credits.

"We’re working with Google at the site level to create GHG credits that are certified to our Standard of Practice, ensuring they represent a real and permanent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions," said Mauricio Vargas, CEO of GHGS.

"Caldwell County welcomes the opportunity to work with Google and GHGS to create offsets while improving air quality and promoting agricultural research," said Dr. John Thuss, Caldwell County Commissioner

"Here at Corporate Express, we see sustainability as a partnership with our customers, and we take many steps with them to help reduce environmental impact, such as offering free toner and inkjet recycling, annual catalog recycling and eco-preferable shopping online," said Jay Mutschler, president of Corporate Express US. "Now, we’re launching this contest to invite businesses across the U.S. to tell their sustainability story as a fun and creative way to encourage sustainability in the workplace."

Entrants must submit an electronic presentation of up to twenty slides in length on why their organization deserves an "Ecoffice Makeover" — regardless of whether they have just started to work on sustainability or if they have already taken significant steps in this area.

"Purchasing eco-preferable products is just one of the many steps that businesses can take toward greater workplace sustainability," said Walter Scott, vice president of marketing and e-commerce, Corporate Express US. "Through this contest, we want to help raise awareness with businesses about the breadth of eco-conscious products that are available for the office."

The contest started on Monday, June 30, 2008 and will close at 11:59 PM Mountain time, on Sunday, August 31, 2008. Entrants must go to http://www.corporateexpress.com/greencontest to download and fill out the Ecoffice Makeover Official Entry Form and read and accept the official terms and conditions for the contest. Entrants must email completed Entry Forms and presentations to EcofficeMakeover [at] groundfloormedia.com. The winner will be announced in September 2008.